AuthenticationEngine

This engine will give you an instant authentication system for a new site, including:

• support for multiple modes of user registration
• registration via openID authentication
• invitations
• activation via email
• password resets via email.
• international support

You will be able to customize look and feel, but it works right out of the box. Even with a completely empty app. ;-)

Thanks to Tse-Ching Ho it is now localized into Chinese and Taiwanese. Feel free to add your own languages.

This Rails 2.3 engine is using the excellent Authlogic gem (github.com/binarylogic/authlogic/tree/master) from Ben Johnson at BinaryLogic, and is based on the sample application for that gem.

*This engine is under active development so use with care. Add any issues as github issues*

Change Log

2009-05-05 Merged Tse-Ching Ho’s branch.

Requirements

1. You need Rails 2.3! This engine is not based on the rails-engines plugin.
2. You need the Authlogic gem, but it will prompt for the gem if it’s missing
3. The authlogic_oid gem.
4. The OpenID Authentication plugin.
5. The i18_label plugin.
6. The declarative_authorization gem

Installation

  $ script/plugin install git://github.com/angantyr/authentication_engine.git

  $ script/plugin install git://github.com/rails/open_id_authentication.git

  $ script/plugin install git://github.com/iain/i18n_label.git

  $ rake authentication_engine:sync

  $ rake db:migrate

The authentication_engine:sync rake moves following files into your app:

  app/controllers/application_controller.rb
  app/helpers/application_helper.rb
  app/helpers/layout_helper.rb
  app/views/layout/application.html.erb
  config/authentication_engine.yml
  config/authorization_rules.rb
  config/database.yml
  config/environments/cucumber.rb
  config/environments/test.rb
  config/initializers/config_loader.rb
  config/initializers/delarative_authorization.rb
  config/initializers/locales.rb
  config/locales/en.yml
  config/locales/zh-CN.yml
  config/locales/zh-TW.yml
  config/locales/authentication_engine/en.yml
  config/locales/authentication_engine/zh-CN.yml
  config/locales/authentication_engine/zh-TW.yml
  config/locales/authlogic/en.yml
  config/locales/authlogic/zh-CN.yml
  config/locales/authlogic/zh-TW.yml
  config/locales/rails/zh-CN.yml
  config/locales/rails/zh-TW.yml
  db/migrate/20090216144927_create_users.rb
  db/migrate/20090216172211_create_open_id_tables.rb
  db/migrate/20090216175329_create_invitations.rb
  db/migrate/20090714114804_add_state_to_user.rb
  db/migrate/20090806032027_create_roles.rb
  db/migrate/20090828070047_create_preferences.rb
  db/migrate/20090829101822_create_root_user.rb
  public/images/User_state.png
  public/images/rails.png
  public/images/admin/
  public/images/admin/accept.png
  public/images/admin/error.png
  public/images/admin/exclamation.png
  public/images/admin/fpo.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/
  public/images/authentication_engine/cross.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/email_go.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/key.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/lock_add.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/lock_delete.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/openid.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/openid_icon.jpg
  public/images/authentication_engine/user.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/user_add.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/user_delete.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/user_edit.png
  public/images/authentication_engine/user_suit.png
  public/stylesheets/authentication.css
  public/stylesheets/admin/
  public/stylesheets/admin/admin.css
  public/stylesheets/admin/invitations.css
  public/stylesheets/admin/pagination.css
  public/stylesheets/admin/users.css

Note: The task keeps a version of your old one files if there is a conflict. It’s not destructive, but you may want to check your code for changes.

Setup

If you are starting with a completely empty rails site,

1. remove index.html in public folder

  rm public/index.html

1. and add a temporary site root like this:

  map.root :controller => "home", :action => "index"

1. add authlogic as first required gem in environment.rb

  config.gem 'authlogic', :lib => 'authlogic', :version => '>=2.1.1', :source => "http://gems.rubyforge.org"

1. login with username and password ‘root’, and remember to change it right away!

Configuration

This version of the engine gives you detailed control over the user registration, signup, and activation process. You can change the behavior to suit your needs by editing the authentication_engine.yml file.

The registration settings control how user accounts are created and activated.

  limited:: only admins can send invites to user so they can register
  private:: registered users can send invites to other users
  requested:: a user can request an account, but only admin can approve it
  public:: anyone can register and activate their own accounts

The signup and activation values default to false, but if set to true, will over-ride the default authlogic behavior and prompt for username and password after account signup and activation. Suitable for the more paranoid among you who

and then for every controller you want to protect, simply add:

  class WidgetsController < ApplicationController
    before_filter :require_user
        ...
  end

or use a combination of user requirements on a per action level:

        before_filter :require_no_user, :only => [:new, :create]
        before_filter :require_user, :only => :destroy

In your application layout include the javascript defaults if you are not already:

  <%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %>

(This is only used for for switching between standard and openid login forms.)

In your layouts and views you can also call the login status bar:

  <%= render :partial => 'shared/user_status' %>

Testing (This is still work in progress!)

Just remember to add this line to your routes.rb:

  map.root :controller => "home", :action => "index"

First, you need to install the basic gems:

  $ gem install rspec-rails
  $ gem install cucumber
  $ gem install webrat
  $ gem install bmabey-email_spec -s http://gems.github.com
  $ script/generate rspec
  $ script/generate cucumber
  $ script/generate email_spec

Then you can test the features of authentication_engine via rake command:

  $ rake authentication_engine:features

Or test it manually:

  $ rake db:test:prepare
  $ cucumber vendor/plugins/authentication_engine/features

To-Do List

Build out admin interfaces, which will expose full data on the included models. This step will also require some kind of authorization scheme. I’m currently planning on using the authorization plugin. Any thoughts on that are welcome. Perhaps that gets rolled into a separate authorization_engine ?

Wish List

• OpenID-based User creation: I would love for the user creation to use the OpenID functionality to the fullest.

Credits

On this one, much credit goes to Ben Johnson at BinaryLogic for providing a fresh start on authentication systems for Rails: github.com/binarylogic/authlogic/tree/master

And to Tse-Ching Ho, for adding internationalization, email activation, and much, much more…

Enjoy!

Copyright © 2009 Mans Angantyr, released under the MIT license